Both Blue Mountain and Pottsville are not afraid to express their feelings about each other when it comes to the rivalry matchup. Those feelings aren’t very positive. With tension on the line and both teams searching for a high seed and home playoff game, the “Clash of 61” rivalry game was set up to be an intense matchup.
Both teams entered the contest on winning streaks, Pottsville on a six-game win streak and Blue Mountain with a win streak of three games. Both teams had already clinched District XI 4A playoff berths, but the final week matchup was integral for seeding for both teams. Blue Mountain was 4-3 and Pottsville 6-1 going into the game, and Pottsville was searching for their third straight victory over the Eagles.
Pottsville received the opening kickoff on the misty night. On the second play of the game, senior Bobby Walchak took a pitch to the home sideline and took it 74 yards for what appeared to be a touchdown until a penalty flag sat on the field near the line of scrimmage. A holding call voided the touchdown run and on the next play the Tide fumbled and Eagles freshman Austin Fields recovered the loose ball.
The Eagles could not get anything going on their first possession either and were forced to punt. The rest of the first quarter and ten minutes of the second quarter offered the same script: back and forth punts. The field position game was being controlled by Blue Mountain. In the middle of the second quarter, the Eagles drove to the Tide 30-yard line. Gavin Bartholomew looked like he had found Eman Parker with room ahead of him, but the slippery ball fell to the turf when Parker attempted to turn it upfield towards the goal line. Blue Mountain ended up turning the ball over on downs. Pottsville ended up with the ball with around two minutes left in the first half. With the ball on the 33-yard line and a little over a minute to go in the half, Bobby Walchak cut back on an outside run all the way to the end zone for a Tide touchdown. The extra point attempt was no good and the Tide took a 6-0 lead into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, Blue Mountain was set to get the football and attempt to get on the scoreboard to tie or even take the lead. Behind a heavy dosage of runs from junior Nick Johnson, a 20-yard sweep from Eman Parker, and a leaping “jump ball” like catch from Bryce Hensley in the end zone, the Eagles took six minutes off the clock in the third quarter and found paydirt on the seven-yard throw and catch from Bartholomew to Hensley. Carson Steinruck added an extra point to put the Eagles ahead 7-6.
Pottsville needed an answer and they found it after five minutes were taken off the clock. Travontai Davis looked like he had a 30 yard touchdown run, but yet again it was called back for a holding penalty. Two plays later though, Jazce Carobello-Snowell found a wide open Max George for a 30-yard touchdown. Raeff DiCello added the extra point to put the Tide up 13-7 going into the fourth quarter.
Blue Mountain could not get their offense going on their ensuing drive and were forced to punt. Pottsville mounted another drive toward the end zone. Carobello-Snowell scampered into the end zone from 15 yards out for a score. DiCello’s extra point furthered the Tide’s lead to 20-7.
Blue Mountain failed to put together a drive and turned the ball over on downs again as time was winding down. Player of the game, Bobby Walchak capped off the Tide’s scoring with his second touchdown of the game, a three-yard run up the middle. DiCello’s extra point was up and through the uprights, putting the Tide ahead 27-7. Time wound down and the Tide could sense victory for the third year in a row. Eman Parker took a 51-yard run into the end zone as time expired to seal the final score at 27-13 in favor of the Tide. Pottsville will be the two seed and host seven seed Wilson in a District XI quarterfinal matchup while Blue Mountain will hit the road and travel to Northwestern Lehigh to take on Bethlehem Catholic on Saturday .
